New Media Workshop

We will spend the first half of class learning how to use a wiki for project collaboration, and using our class wiki to brainstorm about district council coverage ideas.

I will also explain how the Wikipedia pages for Hong Kong District Councils, District Council Elections, etc. got created and how anybody can modify them (including candidates, opponents, etc.).

We will spend the final hour of class talking to journalist Grace Kong, who now works in commercial radio but has also worked as a political reporter and editor for several Hong Kong newspapers. She will discuss her experiences covering district councils and local politics and will give you some advice.

Read on for some of the ideas that came from your blogs this past week:

Megha points out that there is an opportunity for our class to stake out “uncharted” journalistic territory.

Momo found a very useful Chinese-language political forum and points out it’s still unclear whether the DAB or the Democrats will do better in this election. Cherry points out that beyond the two big parties there may not be much room for independent candidates. Ivy comes up with a lot of detail about the issues facing the DC election, and points out that this vote will be a test for next year’s Legco election. Andy Ho looks at some of the issues from the 2003 campaigns and speculates what could lie ahead this year.

Hang has a classmate running for DC, and some other clasmates considering running. Convi points out that candidates are getting younger.
Calvin talks about the difference between the DC and Legco elections. Robin speculates how the Legco by-election may impact the DC elections.

Samantha speculates that cultural heritage could be a big issue. Katherine thinks air quality is likely to be an issue too. Alison digs up some local political blogs. Porgie speculates on some of the reasons for voter apathy and low turnout.

Sonja talks about the challenges of covering Hong Kong’s local politics as a foreigner, but finds similarities between Hong Kong’s DC’s and the local governing bodies in Germany. Franzi also found similarities with Germany. Mandy is also learning about Hong Kong politics for the first time. Juho says Hong Kong politics are new territory for him too, but from initial research he finds that the elections issues seem to vary a lot between districts. Katy gains some interesting insights from a couple of blogs.